(11-27-2011 11:19 PM)SkullyMaroo Wrote:  I think they pull a ULM and FAU type thing where they have "home" games in other stadiums near teams that draw large crowds (like ULM's 'home' game against Arkansas in Little Rock, or FAU's 'home' game against Michigan State in Detroit). If you pull their numbers from the past 10 years you should see a pattern.

FAU did that ONE year, and it was solely because the stadium was not ready. MSU would not play in Lockhart stadium and Dolphins Stadium was booked with a Canes game.

There was no other choice but to have it at Ford Field. Trust me NO ONE wanted that on either the FAU or MSU side, but we had to try and make Lemonade out of the Lemons.

Exactly. A one time deal doesn't make it an "FAU type thing".

(11-27-2011 11:28 PM)UofToledoFans Wrote:  They play all games at home, they just don't have any fans.
4k is legit. The 15k is not from 2010. They have sponsors buy tickets every other year for a few games so a few games are said to be 25k in attendance. They lie every other year to stay FBS.
They don't play anywhere else, all games are at Rynearson. They will need 3 or 4 years at a winning or even record to start to bring in the casual fans. Most people in Ypsilanti would rather watch Michigan instead of EMU. Ann Arbor is like 30 mins away.

You are mistaken. Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor Michigan actually run together.

EMU suffers from being swallowed up by the University of Michigan from an athletic sense. EMU is largely a commuter school (23K - but mostly commuters) that sits right next to UofM.

I kid you not - you can actually walk from EMU's Stadium to U of M's 105K seat stadium.......they are 4 miles apart.

Imagine one of the SBC schools literally a stones throw away from an LSU or Alabama. That's what EMU fights.

Aside from football and mens basketball, they are actually very competitive in the remaining sports. One could argue with some validity that if you can't draw for football or MBB, should you remain D1.

(11-28-2011 04:03 PM)Crebman Wrote:  

(11-27-2011 11:28 PM)UofToledoFans Wrote:  They play all games at home, they just don't have any fans.
4k is legit. The 15k is not from 2010. They have sponsors buy tickets every other year for a few games so a few games are said to be 25k in attendance. They lie every other year to stay FBS.
They don't play anywhere else, all games are at Rynearson. They will need 3 or 4 years at a winning or even record to start to bring in the casual fans. Most people in Ypsilanti would rather watch Michigan instead of EMU. Ann Arbor is like 30 mins away.

You are mistaken. Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor Michigan actually run together.

EMU suffers from being swallowed up by the University of Michigan from an athletic sense. EMU is largely a commuter school (23K - but mostly commuters) that sits right next to UofM.

I kid you not - you can actually walk from EMU's Stadium to U of M's 105K seat stadium.......they are 4 miles apart.

Imagine one of the SBC schools literally a stones throw away from an LSU or Alabama. That's what EMU fights.

Aside from football and mens basketball, they are actually very competitive in the remaining sports. One could argue with some validity that if you can't draw for football or MBB, should you remain D1.

I'm pretty sure that FCS Southern University draws more (according to the ncaa.org website approx. 13k fans average/ game) than that in Baton Rouge and they can drive 5-10 minutes across town to each others stadia.

totaaly different fan base for southern and lsu

(11-28-2011 04:58 PM)marlonfield Wrote:  totaaly different fan base for southern and lsu

if you like football then you like football plain and simple. like saying private university and public university fans are completely different fan bases from each other. they aren't mutually exclusive.

(11-28-2011 05:00 PM)CajunFan89 Wrote:  

(11-28-2011 04:58 PM)marlonfield Wrote:  totaaly different fan base for southern and lsu

if you like football then you like football plain and simple. like saying private university and public university fans are completely different fan bases from each other. they aren't mutually exclusive.

I would normally agree with you, but marlon is actually right about this one. HBCU's are a different breed. I'm not saying there aren't Southern alums who support LSU rather than Southern, but for whatever reason, HBCU alums seem to have more of a connection with their alma maters than schools of otherwise similar size and athletic prestige. If Southern wasn't an HBCU they'd probably be facing a similar challenge to what EMU is facing.

My question is this, if EMU is consistently averaging around 5k fans year in and year out, why do they even bother staying at the FBS level?

EMU under-reports some of their attendance. I watched a game this year where half the stadium was full (at least 15,000 in attendance) and the "official" figure was around 6,000. EMU should have increased attendance (real people) next year, regardless, because of their success. No reason people shouldn't go...

(11-28-2011 11:15 PM)mtsufan561 Wrote:  EMU under-reports some of their attendance. I watched a game this year where half the stadium was full (at least 15,000 in attendance) and the "official" figure was around 6,000. EMU should have increased attendance (real people) next year, regardless, because of their success. No reason people shouldn't go...

I'm not saying you're wrong, but what possible reason could they have to under report by even 1 ticket, let alone 9,000+...

(11-28-2011 11:15 PM)mtsufan561 Wrote:  EMU under-reports some of their attendance. I watched a game this year where half the stadium was full (at least 15,000 in attendance) and the "official" figure was around 6,000. EMU should have increased attendance (real people) next year, regardless, because of their success. No reason people shouldn't go...

They have a large stadium that has never been close to being full. Please post this on the Mac board and you will get laughed at. They report butts in seats. You are wrong... Maybe half of the home side was full, and no one else.

(11-28-2011 11:15 PM)mtsufan561 Wrote:  EMU under-reports some of their attendance. I watched a game this year where half the stadium was full (at least 15,000 in attendance) and the "official" figure was around 6,000. EMU should have increased attendance (real people) next year, regardless, because of their success. No reason people shouldn't go...

Most of the reported numbers are probably tickets sold. I know NIU actually reports people in the stadium, so I can usually guess within a couple thousand what the attendance is if I'm at the game. So you won't see a game with maybe 5,000 people in the seats and the attendance listed as 15000. Plenty of other schools do though, I think. We still should get larger crowds considering the recent success, but what can you do. EMU has been bad for a really long time so they have a big uphill battle. I also think maybe some alumni are still annoyed by them changing their mascot from Hurons to Eagles many years ago.

Comparing attendance numbers is apples to oranges. I would say most schools from CUSA, MWC, SBC, MAC, WAC all count their official attendance numbers differently.

I love when fans from different schools get on message boards and say "Our school averages 20K....." and you look at pics from stadiums and there may be 8-10K. It happens for various reasons and schools from these conferences depend heavily from corporate support.

To me there isn't much difference between 15-20K. All about the same, its just a matter of how schools report official attendance and weather for that given gameday.